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Major concerns were raised about the quality of early batches of 's vaccine, leaked documents from the EU's medical regulator have revealed. Scientists charged with checking the chemicals sent to the bloc for approval last year found doses were of a lower standard than the US drugmaker had promised.In an email dated November 23, a senior European Medicines Agency official warned of a 'significant difference' in the quality of the vaccines compared to jabs used in Pfizer's clinical trials. The cause of the poorer quality was unknown and the impact on safety and ww efficacy of the vaccine was 'yet to be defined', the email said.  
  
Pfizer claims the affected jabs were not rolled out on the continent.It's unclear if similar quality issues were raised in the UK, where the Pfizer jab is one of two vaccines that has been rolled out to 23million Brits already.  
Regulators in the EU and UK check every batch of the vaccine before allowing them to be used. On the back of the find, EU officials filed two 'major objections' to Pfizer, along with a host of other quality control questions it wanted addressed, before it could approve the vaccine. The documents were leaked to the British Medical Journal (BMJ) following a cyber attack on the EU regulator in December.  Hundreds of thousands of doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine being prepared in a factory in Belgium (file image)While the reason behind the poorer quality of vaccines sent to the EU is unclear, Pfizer's jab is made from extremely volatile genetic material known as messenger RNA (mRNA), which at the time meant it had to be kept at -70C.  If not stored or transported properly the mRNA can be damaged by other molecules in the environment, including light and temperature. Guidance has since been updated to say the vaccine can be kept at normal freezer temperatures for two weeks.  
  
Once it arrives at a clinic it can be stored in a fridge for five days before use.  RELATED ARTICLES   
  
  
  
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<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news floatRHS" data-version="2" id="mol-b5e152a0-81a2-11eb-91d1-351c1a639bb4" website concerns over Pfizer&apos;s Covid vaccine, leaked documents